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Federal raid at Incubator still a mystery

With neighbors including a nearby shooting range, the sight of firearm-toting law enforcement officers isn’t all that uncommon along her neck of Orchard Mesa at the Business Incubator Center, the center’s executive director said Monday.

“We’re certainly not used to seeing them in the building,” said Chris Reddin, who will step down Aug. 5 as executive director.

Reddin said neither she nor the Incubator’s management team had knowledge that the FBI was investigating a client business until Reddin said she received a text message from a staff member just after 9 a.m. Wednesday. It read, “FBI and Sheriff ... here.”

On the second floor of the facility’s technology division, there were just under a dozen or so federal agents and Mesa County Sheriff’s Department deputies, including representatives of the U.S. Department of Treasury, Reddin said.

They were inside unit T201A, home to Honor Bound Healthcare Providers Inc., Reddin said. At no point during Wednesday’s encounter did authorities explain their purpose, she said.

“I identified myself as the director and I was told, ‘Unless you have urgent business, we’d like you to leave,’ ” Reddin said.

FBI spokesman Dave Joly on Monday declined to identify the business at the Incubator where a search warrant was executed Wednesday as part of an ongoing investigation. No arrests were made Wednesday, or as of Monday, Joly said.

Honor Bound’s website — which was unavailable to view on Monday — said the company provides licensed nurses for in-home care of individuals formerly in the uranium industry suffering from health complications.

Honor Bound is on a 12-month lease at the Incubator Center, which was signed just over a year ago, Reddin said. She said the business hasn’t provided notice of intent to leave and that lease terms require 30-days notice.

On Friday, Reddin said Honor Bound’s owner, Paul Breaux, called the Incubator Center and requested that staff remove Honor Bound’s business signs hanging on the front door of its leased unit, as well as the business directory on the ground level. Reddin said Breaux didn’t explain, and she didn’t ask why.

They’ve had no contact since, she said.

With no information from federal authorities or from Breaux, Reddin said Incubator staff wait in limbo. Federal authorities so far have not sought information from the center about Breaux’s business, Reddin said.

“Until we know what all the issues are, we’re in a wait-and-see situation,” she said. “We have not had problems with this client in the past.”

The business was locked on Monday. The Daily Sentinel’s calls to Honor Bound and Breaux were not immediately returned. Breaux could not be reached at his home on East Orchard Mesa.

According to records on file with the Mesa County Clerk and Recorder, Breaux on May 27 closed on the $1,275,000 purchase of a 9-acre property on 33 1/2 Road.

Colorado Secretary of State business records indicate that Honor Bound, which was founded by Breaux in October 2009, is in good standing.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which inspects the state’s health care facilities, lists on its website no incidents or complaints involving Honor Bound.

Reddin, meanwhile, said she informed the Incubator Center’s board of directors on July 1 of her intent to leave her post on Aug. 5. Hired in 2007, Reddin said she had been considering taking her new position “for some time.” She added that she’ll be available to assist with a leadership transition after Aug. 5, if needed.

“My decision to leave had nothing to do with the FBI raid,” she said. “The timing is purely coincidental.”